VILLAGERS are drawing up plans for a hydroelectric power plant in Sandford-on-Thames.

But the eco-friendly power scheme is proving controversial with nature lovers who object to the loss of 150-year-old pine trees nearby.

A group of residents want to build the £3m power plant in the Thames at Sandford Weir, which they say could generate enough power for more than 400 homes.

Like a similar scheme at Osney and one planned for Abingdon, the facility would use Archimedes screws to power a turbine.

The villagers are getting help from Oxford’s Low Carbon Hub to raise the £3m needed by offering local people the chance to buy shares in the scheme.

Operations director Adriano Figueiredo said: “The weir at Sandford is a perfect site for hydro.

“The proposed scheme is 450kW and could generate on average 1,600MWh per year of clean, green electricity, enough to power over 400 houses – that’s three-quarters of the local households.

“What’s more, the carbon saved is expected to be 850 tonnes per annum.”

The electricity generated could be sold back to the national grid, meaning investors will be able to get a return on their down-payment.

The Low Carbon Hub has applied to Vale of White Horse District Council for planning permission and is due a decision early next week.

The scheme also proposes building a ‘fish pass’ which would allow all species to get upstream past the power plant.

Sandford Parish Council, which does not cover the site of the weir, has told the Vale it “entirely supports” the scheme.

But Kennington Parish Council, whose boundaries include the weir, has objected on several grounds.

Its members raised concerns that 150-year-old pine trees in the area would need to be felled and said planned replacement trees would be “wholly inadequate, losing the character and habitat” of the area.

They also said they were concerned about the visual impact of the machinery and fencing, and worried that construction vehicles coming in and out of the area would “completely spoil the existing nature habitat of the meadow”.

The Vale’s forestry team also said it was unhappy with the group’s plans, criticising proposals to plant 102 trees at the site .

It said in a report to planners: “This is inadequate to mitigate the loss of a high number of mature trees along the west bank of the river and will do nothing to replace the large groups of trees to be removed at the south of the site.”

Mr Figueiredo said many of the 40 trees to be removed at the site were in a poor condition and liable to fall over in high winds.

View the plans online at whitehorsedc.gov.uk using reference number P15/V0986/FUL.